Kimmei, the twenty-ninth emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, and the first to whom contemporary historiography assigns clear dates, was the son of Emperor Keitai and Princess Tashiraka, Emperor Ninken's daughter.

Known during his lifetime by the name Amehara Oshiharaki Hironiwa or Amekuni Oshiharaki Hironiwa, he has established or moved his court to Shikishima no Kanazashi Palace in Yamato.

Mononobe no Okoshi and Nakatomi no Kanamura are both appointed Ōmuraji, and Soga no Iname is appointed Ōomi.

Although the imperial court will not move to the Asuka region of Japan until 592, Emperor Kimmei's rule is considered by some to be the beginning of the Asuka period of Yamato Japan, particularly those who associate the Asuka period primarily with the introduction of Buddhism to Japan from Korea.

With the introduction of a new religion to the court, a deep rift has developed between the Mononobe clan, who supported the worship of Japan's traditional deities, and the Soga clan, who supported the adoption of Buddhism.

Because of several temporal discrepancies in the account of Emperor Kimmei in the Nihon Shoki (sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, an early eighth-century work written in classical Chinese, as is common for official documents at this time), some believe that his is actually a rival court to that of successive Emperors Ankan and Senka.

Bidatsu, the second son of Emperor Kimmei by his consort Iwahime, a daughter of Emperor Senka, had been appointed crown prince by his father; after Kimmei dies in 572, Bidatsu ascends to the throne within a few days.

Guntram, well endowed with the political skills of prudence and duplicity, has striven to prevent either of his two remaining brothers, Chilperic and Sigebert, from gaining too great a power, allying now with the one, now with the other.

The Lombards overcome a long and powerful resistance to finally take Pavia, on the Ticino River, in 572.

Alboin, impressed, establishes the city as the capital of the newly created Lombard kingdom.

The brothers Liuwa and Liuvigild, led by the latter, have banished the imperial civil servants and worked to unify the Iberian Peninsula.

Their efforts are more or less successful, except in the north, where the Basques, Cantabrians, and Asturians manage to hold out against them.

They maintain trade connections with the Eastern Roman Empire, thus maintaining Hispania’s urban culture as well as its commercial and cultural connections within the Mediterranean area.

By this time the language of the Visigoths is no longer Germanic, the Latin of Hispania having evolved into into what will become Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Lombard control has spread from the north to Tuscany and Umbria by 572, although much of southern and eastern Italy remains in imperial hands.

Alboin had forced Rosamund, the daughter of the Gepid king Cunimund whom Alboin had killed in battle with his own hand, to marry him after the death of his first wife.

Alboin is murdered, probably with connivance on the part of Constantinople, at Verona on June 28, 572; assassinated by a combination of several Gepid and Lombard warriors, according to tradition, at the behest of Rosamund after he had forced her to follow the Lombard custom of drinking from the skull of her slain father.

The Lombard warriors however, force Rosamund and her accomplices to flee to imperial protection in …

…Ravenna.

Cleph, who is acclaimed the new king of the Lombards later in this year, extends the Lombard kingdom by completely conquering Tuscany and closing on Ravenna.

...Zamora, thus enlarging his kingdom to the north and west as well.

Theodric, another son of Ida and the fifth known ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia, in 572 assumes the kingship.

Justin's forces had invaded Persia in the late summer of 572.

The Persians, however, have not only repulsed the Romans but themselves invaded Roman territory, capturing a number of important cities, including …

...Daraa, which falls in November 573.